Harry Potter Quiz

The date was Thursday 17th August, the location was R&R in Abingdon and the event was the much anticipated HARRY POTTER QUIZ!!!

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first Harry Potter book being published, Bloomsbury released 20 official Harry Potter Quiz sets to a set of lucky bookshops and Mostly Books were chuffed to pieces to be one of those shops!

Imogen was beside herself with excitement because she had pitched the idea of a Harry Potter quiz as a potential Mostly Books event just a couple of weeks previously.  Given her level of enthusiasm and the fact that a lot of our customers are clearly huge Harry Potter fans, we had already agreed that we would be doing a quiz - we just had no idea that we would be doing it with direct support from the official Harry Potter publishing house! 

After releasing the tickets on July 14th, we sold out pretty much immediately - all 60 tickets were sold in less than five days - and excitement started to mount.  The official quiz pack, including questions and the all important answers, appeared at the shop and we had to store it under lock and key.  Our wonderful neighbours at Oxfam popped by with a whole load of goodies for us to decorate R&R with and many a discussions took place around costumes.

When the 17th finally arrived, Draco Malfoy (AKA our very own Imogen) took centre stage to host the quiz.  Participants arrived in droves and excitement started to mount as they settled down at their tables and ordered some yummy refreshments from the R&R team.  Wands were brandished and costumes compared as each team chose a suitable Potter-esque team name before the event kicked off.

Seven rounds, each containing seven questions then ensued with plenty of banter between Draco and the teams.  A break halfway through enabled the quizzers to replenish their dwindling supply of refreshements and to browse the selection of Harry Potter goodies on offer. 

Once all questions had been asked and the answers were checked and verified, the winners were announced.  The first set of prizes were for the best costumes of the evening with three quizzers each winning a handmade wand kindly donated by Charlie & Elijah (Also known as the Cross Eyed Cat Wand Makers) and the team with the winning name (Two radishes short of a bunch) each won a voucher to spend at Mostly Books.

Then it was the all important results!  It was a tight run race with the decision about second and third place being decided by the tie-break question*.  The team coming in in third place each won a Mostly Books voucher, the team in second place received a set of the 20th anniversary Philosopher's Stone paperbacks - and the great thing was that each member of the team was linked with each of the four houses so they all got the copy that they wanted!!

A huge congratulations to Simon, Jeanette, Anna & Tom for winning first prize with a staggering 45 questions right out of 49!!  The members of the winning team each won a whole stack of goodies, courtesy of our friends at Bloomsbury:

• A copy of the Illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
• A hardback copy of the 20th anniversary 'House Edition' of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
• A Hogwarts House Bookmark
• Some Harry Potter Bunting
• A Harry Potter doorhanger 

After a prize-giving ceremony and some more Harry Potter related banter, the quizzers started to drift off, happy and relaxed after a brilliant night out. 

This was our first joint venture with Rob, Rachel and the team at R&R and I hope that it won't be the last.  Having the opportunity to use such a wonderful space for one of our events worked really well and both teams enjoyed the evening.  We'll be looking forward to more collaborations in future.

Check out our Facebook page (here) for more  pictures of the event.  In the meantime, we will all enjoy memories of an enjoyable night out and the fact that Abingdon was lucky enough to give Harry Potter fans a great quiz!

* In case you're wondering, the question was 'How many words are there in the Philosopher's Stone?' and the answer is 76,944......You know what they say - every day's a school day!

Harry Potter - 20 Years On and Still Going Strong

It’s been 20 years since Harry Potter first hit our shelves and the obsession with the boy wizard is showing no signs of slowing down. 

Whilst working on some accounts in the stock room earlier in the week, with a curtain separating me from the kid’s room in the shop, I heard a young boy come bounding up the stairs shouting “Harry Potter!  Mum, it’s Harry Potter!!!!” whilst running towards our Harry Potter display.

We mentioned in our newsletter on 23^rd June that we have copies of the beautiful 20^th anniversary ‘House’ editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in stock which form the centre of our Harry Potter display. The four books are stunning re-issues of the original story and each of the covers has a different design reflecting the four Hogwarts houses. 

This little boy was overwhelmed by the fact that there was a book available that focussed on his favourite house - Gryffindor.  With words tumbling all over each other, he was at absolute pains to let his mum know why it was the Gryffindor was the house to be in and, at the same time, he decided that it was imperative that she also needed to know what characteristics the other houses consisted of and why, indeed, that made Gryffindor the house of choice (bravery was definitely a big plus).  By his mum’s reaction, it struck me that this was probably not the first time - and almost definitely won’t be the last - that these differences have been analysed in some detail but it was so lovely to hear the enthusiasm pouring out of this boy about such iconic stories.

Following the Harry Potter theme, we also had a couple in the shop this week who bought one of our gorgeous illustrated editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.  We got chatting and the man told me that he was buying the book to read to his five-year old son.  He had decided that it was time to introduce him to the world of Hogwarts and what a great way to do it!  These editions (the Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets are currently available and the Prisoner of Azkaban will be published in October) contain some simply stunning illustrations and have been flying off our shelves as a popular ‘Welcome to the World’ or Christening day presents.

What a magical thing for a father and son to share!  It’s something that I am sure will create some amazing memories for that lucky little boy as he gradually discovers the world of Harry Potter in bite-sized bed time reading sessions.

With all of this going on and the fact that we have just announced that we will shortly be hosting an official Harry Potter Quiz (August 17^th at R&R – Please get in touch for more details), I can’t help but wonder what it is about Harry Potter that makes it so special.  Is it the pure escapism or the fact that good ultimately prevails in most cases?  Maybe it’s the amount of detail that J.K. Rowling goes into which helps us form such clear images of a non-muggle existence or perhaps it’s the sheer delight at the prospect of wandering down Diagon Alley and stopping off for a Butterbeer before heading into Ollivanders to choose your wand.

Who knows?  The experience will be different for every single one of us but no-one can dispute the fact that every detail of the story is simply magical and I am completely in awe of the fact that all of those original ideas came from one woman sitting in a café in Scotland.  What an inspiration to come up with such unique and memorable tales.

No-one knows what creates the magic but one thing is for sure, Harry Potter isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Aparecium and Imperio! We reveal a few Harry Potter surprises coming this Autumn

As well as running the YA Bookgroup and being on hand for loads of great reading recommendations (not to mention being shortlisted for 'Young Bookseller of the Year' earlier this year) Imogen is our resident expert on everything Hogwarts-bound.

There some very exciting developments in the Harry Potter Universe this Autumn, so we'll hand over to Imogen to tell you more...

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Anyone who comes into the shop will know that I love and adore all things Harry Potter. So I'm overjoyed at just how 'potterish' the publishing world is looking this Autumn.

Firstly, the illustrated 'Harry Potter and the Philsopher's Stone' comes out in early October. This stunning book has not only the first Harry Potter novel within its covers, but beautiful illustrations of the characters and going-ons within the Hogwarts walls, done by illustrator Jim Kay. It will not only draw in new fans and children, but it will delight those that fell in love with the series before.

Having managed to sneak a peek at the finished book the other month, I can honestly say that any Harry Potter fan would fall in love with the magic inside the pages.

(You may already know Jim Kay from his award-winning illustrations in 'A Monster Calls' with Patrick Ness. Take a look at some of the gorgeous illustrations from the new Harry Potter on Jim's website)

Stationary company Insight brought out a range of Potter notebooks earlier this year (along with the ones they already made for The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones). There are four of them to pick from; Hogwarts, Slytherin, Gryffindor and The Deathly Hallows.

Over the next two months, they will be bringing out Stationary Sets for the two houses and Hogwarts, each with their own notebook, writing paper and envelopes, paperweight and wax sealing sets.

And it all comes in a beautiful box designed around the Hogwarts colours.

Not a big writer? That’s fine, because the 'Harry Potter Colouring Book' comes out in November! Packed with artwork from the Warner Brothers Archive, fans will get the chance to colour in characters and scenes from the films, from Dobby to Voldemort and Quidditch Games.

(This may be your only chance to decide exactly what cloak Voldemort is wearing. His normal one…or how about something much brighter?!)

Finally, going back to books to read, both out this year were the ‘Harry Potter Character Vault’- much like last years ‘Creature Vault’ tells you everything you need to know about all the Potter Characters, from concept art to behind the scenes and how the characters evolved through the films, and ‘Magical Places from the Films’ going behind the scenes of the iconic places in Harry Potter. From Hogwarts itself to Malfoy Manor, it will tell you everything you wish to know about how the places were imagined, constructed - and where you might be able to visit them.

Every Potter fan (myself included) is in for a fantastic few months with all the new things - and that’s not even counting the Harry Potter play 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' coming to theatres next year, the year the Epilogue in Harry Potter is set…